China stocks end higher on tech strength

SHANGHAI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - China stocks clawed back from earlier losses to close higher on Tuesday, helped by gains in tech firms as Beijing pushes for self-sufficiency in the sector amid a protracted trade war with the United States.

** China has lodged a complaint against the United States at the World Trade Organization over U.S. import duties, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said on Monday.

** The trade war's impact on China's economy is limited, said Kim Eng, S&P's primary sovereign analyst for China. "I would not expect U.S. tariffs by themselves to cause the Chinese economy to weaken so much that we have to lower the rating," Eng said.

** There's also expectation that Beijing would be ready to intervene to prevent sharp market selloffs ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1.

* Leading the gains, the IT and telecommunications sectors closed up 2.6% and 2.9% respectively, as investors cheered Beijing's continued push for tech independence amid the bruising trade war with the United States.

** On the newly launched STAR Market, all of the 28 listed firms posted gains of more than 4%, with Espressif Systems surging the maximum allowed 20%.

** For the first half of the year, profitability improved for most emerging industries in the A-share market, with cloud computing, 5G, high-end manufacturing and Internet of Things recording far higher profit growth rates, analyst at China Merchants Securities said in a report.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.73%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.02%.

** At 07:14 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 7.1828 per U.S. dollar, 0.15% weaker than the previous close of 7.1717.

** The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Saurer Intelligent Technology Co Ltd , up 10.08%, followed by Tianjin Quanyechang Group Co Ltd, gaining 10.04%, and Wuhan DDMC Culture Co Ltd , up by 10.04%.

** The largest percentage losers in the Shanghai index were Well Lead Medical Co Ltd, down 9.48%, followed by TVZone Media Co Ltd, losing 9.07%, and Ecovacs Robotics Co Ltd, down by 5.05%.

** About 18.90 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 116.1% of the market's 30-day moving average of 16.28 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 20.28 billion.

** As of 07:15 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 29.40% over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. (Reporting by Luoyan Liu and John Ruwitch; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)